This invention relates to sanitizing chemical compositions that can be used on fresh fruits and vegetables as well as on hard surfaces that come in contact with food thereby reducing the risk of illness caused by harmful chemical residues and/or infectious contaminating microorganisms. The invention further helps to increase the shelf life or keeping qualities of food by reducing the population of spoilage microorganisms carried on the surface of the food.
Most common antimicrobial products accomplish reduction of microbial populations on food and hard food contacting surfaces by oxidation of the target microorganism. To accomplish this, common antimicrobial products of this type contain or utilize compounds having highly oxidizing compounds such as chlorine, chlorine dioxide, peracetic acid, ozone, hydrogen peroxide used to reduce microbial population on food. These oxidizing chemicals inactivate microorganisms by reacting with their organic material. However, these chemicals can also react deleteriously with organic food material and other compounds to produce unknown chemical residues which may be harmful to health. For instance studies have indicated that hypochlorite (chlorine) produces carcinogenic residues on food in certain situations.
An additional drawback of these common antimicrobial oxidative products are compositions which generally lack significant detergent action or cleaning properties. Thus it is often necessary to employ several materials in potentially multi-step cleaning processes to remove all undesirable material and residue from the foodstuff or hard food contacting surface.
Most chemical products suitable for use on foodstuff or hard food contact surfaces do not have significant antimicrobial and microbial properties. Sanitizing products which exhibit significant antimicrobial and/or microbicidal properties have historically been considered unsafe or suspect as containing ingredients which are not classified by the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) as GRAS (Generally Regarded As Safe) for food contact or as a food additive.
Various other sanitizing products require incorporation of additional antibacterial compounds in the preparation to inhibit or kill microorganisms. Such commercial sanitizing products are permitted for use on food contact hard surfaces. However, they cannot be used on fruits and vegetables as they have certain components that are expressly prohibited for use on fresh foods by regulatory agencies.
Additionally, it is economically or logistically necessary to store and ship such sanitizing preparations as concentrate liquids or solids which can be dissolved or diluted to a suitable use solution. Various known formulations can exhibit cloudiness, opalescence or precipitate when diluted with tap water. This phenomenon can interfere with the optimal function of the sanitizing solution.
Thus it would be highly desirable to provide a sanitizing composition which was composed entirely of components approved by regulatory agencies such as the US FDA for use on both fresh fruits and vegetables. It is also desirable that the aforementioned solution be capable of achieving cleaning and sanitizing of food contacting hard surfaces thereby providing a composition which can be utilized for various cleaning and sanitizing operations with increased efficiency and economy. It is also desirable to provide a cleaning and sanitizing composition which can be prepared and stored in a highly concentrated form increasing ease in storage and transport. It is also desirable that the sanitizing material be suitable for use in automatic dispensing operations thereby eliminating risks involved in manual handling. It is also desirable that the composition be one which results in a clear solution without opalescence, cloudiness or precipitate particularly when a concentrated form of the composition is diluted with water.